Shadowrun Returns

The Rad

• Turn based combat ala XCOM. Can’t get enough.
• Very story driven and for the most part it’s well written.
• Old School look and feel.
• Love the setting.
• Rad soundtrack!

The Bad

• Only checkpoints. No hard saves.
• A little on the short side.

I’m sadly rather inexperienced in the Shadowrun universe.

It’s quite a pity seeing as though it’s a fusion of my two favorite genres - Cyberpunk and Fantasy. I’ve never been fortunate enough to play the Pen & Paper game on which it’s based. When I played the SNES and Genesis games I was too young to really know what I was doing. And while I didn’t outright HATE the relatively recent shooter the way some do - it certainly isn’t what anyone really wanted to see from a game based on the franchise.

Shadowrun Returns however utilizes the setting well and in the right genre too, so that’s a win. SR is very old school - from it’s Infinity Engine-esque visuals to it’s turn based combat to it’s total lack of voice acting and dependence on buckets of text to tell its tale. It’s delightfully retro and I for one am pleased as punch about it.

The campaign that comes with the game is titled The Dead Mans switch and sets you on a job to avenge an old colleague - hopefully earning yourself the big bucks along the way. The writing can be a little hokey in spots, but I feel like it comes with the territory and as a whole the story is generally well told and engaging.

There’s a fairly decent variety in the games turn-based combat thanks to a good selection of available classes. I played a Decker and stuck fairly rigidly to that path, diverging a little to specialize some in assault rifles so when it came to combat my PC didn’t exactly have the widest selection of options but when you go on a run you’ll get to hire from a pool of colorful characters in a variety of classes so this gives you a pretty good chance to try different things no matter which class you choose for your character.

Dead Man’s Switch will run you twelve hours.

And it’s a great twelve hours but I feel like you expect RPGs to be a little lengthier. The game comes with what would appear to be a fairly robust editor and there’s already new campaigns in the works but from what I’ve heard you won’t be able to bring your character from the main campaign along into these new ones - which is a bit of a bummer if like me you grow easily attached to your characters. It also seems like a bit of an unsafe proposition hope the community ensures your games longevity.

I loved the game and am eager for more, but if the game doesn’t sell well we mightn’t get it and that’d be a real shame. What they’ve put forward is a solid foundation and I’d love for the community to build upon it with a myriad of different tales. That being said I feel like I at least got my $20 worth. Shadowrun has returned and I just hope it stays.